Christian Dior

Raf Simons radicalized menswear physically and philosophically, which is why the fact that he is now helming Dior still has such a pinch-me potency. The possibilities inherent in the tie-up are enough to make the senses swim.

Today, sight was the first sense to feel the power of possibility. The enveloping, surreal floral bower that was last spring's set had been replaced by an industrial simulacrum, flowers of light radiating in a spectrum that turned red into searing orange (Grace Coddington's hair was a flaring corona) and blue into bright turquoise. Then the light turned white, and hearing, the second sense, surrendered to the martial techno pulse of French Fries' "Bug Noticed"…

It's impossible for Simons to design anything that doesn't come straight from the heart. So it's fair to compare Dior's rejuvenation under his watch to a heart transplant. The personality of the collection Simons showed this afternoon was the clearest consolidation yet of his transformative impact. One favorite instance: a Bar jacket whose emblematic flaring hip looked like it had been let down gently.

When he came to Dior, Simons talked a lot about his fascination with the secret codes of couture and women's clothing. In his own collections, he has always been equally entranced by their male equivalents. The two currents ran together today: Tailored coats and jackets in flannel, camel, and pinstripe had a masculine weight, but they were matched with intensely feminine colors and silks. Many of them featured the purely female detail of corset lacing, down the sides or the spine or, sensationally, across the Bar-silhouetted hip of a slipdress in khaki, which made Grace Mahary look like a nouvelle Maggie the Cat. But, claimed Simons, these were also suggestive of the laces of trainers, which he snuck into his Haute Couture show in January to such great effect, like a jolt of reality. Transmogrified into heels, they had a slightly more surreal effect today.

But that is, of course, because "reality" offers infinite possibilities. Simons elaborated on this some more when he closed the show with eveningwear that layered sheer, elongated, embroidered T-shirts over shorter, knitted versions of same. The simplicity of the proposition scarcely compromised its strength.